Faculty & Staff Directory

Urban von Wahlde, PhD

About

Dr. von Wahlde has taught on the graduate and undergraduate faculties at Loyola since 1981. He was chairperson of the department from 1987–1993. He has been an editor of the Catholic Biblical Quarterly and currently serves on the Association's committee for scholarship in emerging nations. In addition he is a member of the Society of Biblical Literature and the Studiorum Novi Testamenti Societas.

He is the author of three books and a three-volume commentary on the Gospel and Letters of John for the Eerdmans Critical Commentary series. Dr. von Wahlde is also the author of the major entry on the Gospel of John and the major entry on John, the Son of Zebedee for the multi-volume Encyclopedia of the Bible and Its Reception. He is also the author of the major articles on The Gospel of John and the Letters of John in the Lexham Dictionary of the New Testament. He is also the author of over fifty scholarly articles. Although his primary focus is on the Johannine literature, he has also published articles on the gospel of Mark and the Acts of the Apostles.

His most recent book, Gnosticism, Docetisim and the Judaisms of the First Century: The Search for the Setting of the Gospel of John and Why It Matters will appear in March 2015.

Program Areas

The Gospel and Letters of John

Research Interests

Relations Between Christians and Jews in the First Century, Questions of Anti-Judaism in the Gospel of John, Apocalyptic Literature, Dead Sea Scrolls

Selected Publications

Books:

Gnosticism, Docetism and the Judaisms of the First Century: The Search for the Wider Context of the Johannine Literature and of the Johannine School and Why It Matters (Accepted for publication: T&T Clark, Edinburgh). (88,000 words; 163 pages + indices, etc).

Articles:

“Raymond Brown’s View of the Crisis of 1 John: Some Agreements and Disagreements,” published version of the paper presented at the McAfee Symposium on the Johannine Epistles, McAfee School of Theology, Mercer University, Atlanta. (forthcoming).

“C.H. Dodd and the ‘Myth’ of Realized Eschatology” Invited chapter for a commemorative volume honoring the fiftieth anniversary of the publication of C.H. Dodd’s Historical Tradition in the Fourth Gospel. (forthcoming).

“The Gospel of John and the Location of Golgotha and the Tomb of Jesus” forthcoming in a volume tentatively entitled The Gospel of John and Archaeology (completed, forthcoming).

“The Development of Jewish Attitudes Toward Ritual Purity in Late Second Temple Judaism: The Evidence from the Pools of Siloam and Bethesda.” Invited contribution to a Festschrift for F.S. Manns, OFM, to be published by SBF Press, Jerusalem. (completed/forthcoming).

For the Encyclopedia of the Bible and Its Reception (Ed. H. Spieckermann, et. al.; Berlin: De Gruyter (requested March 2013). The major articles on: “The Gospel of John” (3800 words); “John, the Son of Zebadee” (1420 words)

Papers:

“Some Evidence That The Issue of the ‘Historical Words of Jesus’ Was a Problem for the Johannine Community Itself,” Invited Paper for the “John, Jesus and History” Program Unit of the Society of Biblical Literature, Baltimore, November, 2013.

“Johannine Sectarianism: Evidence and Pseudo-Evidence,” (w. a response by Wayne Meeks, Yale University Emeritus). Invited paper for the Program Unit on “The Extent of Theological Diversity in Earliest Christianity” at the annual meeting of the SBL, Baltimore, November, 2013.